The CIA really struggled for a while after the end of the Cold War. We no longer had a major enemy, so their importance and prestige dwindled significantly.

Then 9/11 happened, and they've enjoyed a rebirth of importance and the boon of the Patriot Act making their jobs easier than ever before. Combined with precisely zero accountability, they've been free to do whatever they wanted.

It's not at all surprising that bribery was a major part of it, since that's pretty much the main way all foreign nations gain influence in third-world hellholes like Afghanistan.

It is usually much less expensive to get the leaders of a country to support US policy by bribing them than with military power, and if the leaders can't be bribed then the money can be used to install leaders who can.

rtaylor92:correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the "Three O'clock High" strategy of "paying a shiat load of money to our enemies so they would leave us alone" part of the brilliant "Surge" in Iraq too?

You and me. Bike rack. Three O'clock.

/If only//Always thought if we made the World Leaders duke it out themselves, war would be much less frequent///Of course then, Putin would be King Emperor Bear Punching Inseminator In Chief, so maybe not such a good idea

FTA: The so-called "ghost money" was meant to buy influence for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) but instead fuelled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington's exit strategy from Afghanistan, the newspaper quoted U.S. officials as saying.

I guess Afghani citizens have a different defimtion of "corruption" than Reuters editors. Money is an excellent weapon to convert potential enemies into allies, but I bet there is a tipping point where it goes from strategic assets to plain old corruption.

Is this surprising at all? The first thing Karzai did on his first name in office was to allow the oil piepline to be built across Afghanistan that the oil companies were clamoring for for years, but were denied by the Taliban

Walker:We've got no money for meals on wheels for the elderly or the head start program for kids, but plenty of money for Taliban warlords. Interesting.

this won't bleed us dry like it did the soviets but it sure doesn't help. fark the afghans. sure there are good afghans. if you find them maybe we can relocate them here while the rest of that god forsaken POS rots.

or you could take that money and give it to NGOs that provide health care (to the clean shaven only), or build girls schools, or better water supplies or pretty much anything that helps the actual people. not kazai or the warlords.

Yes. He's the President (until 2014) Why doesn't he just walk in to the modern CIA and force the idea down their throats? I'm sure he's swinging a big stick in the covert action community...unlike that Wimp, George Bush Sr., amirite?